Governor's stance comes a day after shooting blamed on Houston-area man

GARY SCHARRER, Austin Bureau |
January 22, 2010

AUSTIN — The day after a shooting outside the state Capitol, lawmakers on Friday suggested that metal detectors to the building entrances were imminent, a move Gov. Rick Perry suggested he would not likely support.

No one was injured when a man fired several shots from a small-caliber handgun on the Capitol steps. A 24-year-old Houston man, Fausto Cardenas, is facing a deadly conduct charge, a third-degree felony, in the shooting. He remained in the Travis County Jail.

“One of the things that we need to do is a better job of checking people before they actually get into the building,” Williams said Friday. “It's an unfortunate part of the world that we live in. ”

Starting last year, visitors to the House and Senate galleries were asked to pass through metal detectors outside the third-floor galleries to watch legislative action in those chambers.

Texas lawmakers are not scheduled to return to a legislative session until next January.

Cardenas did not have a concealed handgun license, Perry said.

But other Texans do, and “criminals have to think twice before they draw a gun because there is a good chance that they are going to end up outnumbered by law-abiding citizens who are not only armed, but screened and trained properly in firearm use … (which) keeps us all safer,” Perry said.

Cardenas' behavior during a brief visit to the office of Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, shortly before the shooting drew the attention of office staff who found it bizarre enough to alert state troopers in the Capitol.

Troopers jumped Cardenas after several shots were fired outside. The Department of Public Safety has declined comment on its investigation, including whether Cardenas had a gun permit and whether any bullets have been recovered or where they landed.

Two days before the shooting, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst recommended a review of Capitol security in a letter to House Speaker Joe Straus.

The two have discussed Capitol security for months, Dewhurst spokesman Mike Wintemute said, and Dewhurst's letter was meant to formalize their plan for a joint House-Senate working group to review it.

“Certainly, the lieutenant governor has long believed that Capitol security is a top priority from the standpoint of making a safe place to work and visit for staff — but also for visitors because it's a potential target,” Wintemute said.

The effort, Dewhurst said in the letter, should ensure better security balanced “with our need to maintain public access to the legislative process.”

Dewhurst sent a copy of the letter to the chamber's 31 senators after the shooting with an update of the incident.

A review of Capitol security by the U.S. Secret Service had already produced recommendations and an action plan, said Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, chairman of the House Administration Committee.

“We were already in the process and ordered equipment,” Geren said Friday, adding that the planned enhancements “didn't have a damn thing to do with that fool yesterday.”

He said he could not release the plan's details but acknowledged that metal detectors for Capitol access are part of it.

DPS Director Steve McCraw has been asked to give lawmakers the agency's priority security recommendations along with their price tag.